Earlier this month Pace Academy senior debaters Jordan Epstein and Victor Skenderi won first place at the University of Michigan’s national Seniors Round Robin tournament in Ann Arbor after two days of competition against some of the nation’s top debaters, the Buckhead school announced Thursday in a news release.

Epstein and Skenderi were undefeated and also were named top and second-place individual speakers. Pace junior Erik Howard was named the top individual speaker in the Juniors Round Robin.

Following the Round Robins, 12 Pace debaters, including seniors Jon Adelman, Jack Bowen, Paula Cheng and Brian Klarman, juniors Katie Duval, Kal Golde, Howard and Anshuman Parikh, sophomores Tanner Lewis and Clyde Shepherd, reached the elimination rounds in the varsity division of Michigan’s three-day national tournament. In a field of 350 students from 20 states, Epstein and Skenderi reached the finals (the top four students).

Freshmen Jacob Queller and Reid Funston reached the finals of Michigan’s novice division — the third consecutive year that Pace freshmen have reached the finals in that group.

In October, Epstein and Skenderi reached the semifinal round of the national tournament at the St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas, placing them in the top eight of nearly 150 students from 17 states.

Shepherd and Lewis won first place at the invitation-only sophomore division of the St. Mark’s tournament after two days of competition among 32 pairs of students from around the country. This is the third consecutive year Pace sophomores have reached the finals there, having also won the tournament in 2010.

The team will next compete at The Glenbrooks in suburban Chicago next weekend.

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